the back yard

okay, so "we" (read: ed) have been working really hard on the house this summer and fall. since ed is still looking for work, he's been home with time on his hands to complete some major work on the house and this is especially great to get the particularly yucky projects done before the baby arrives. so, one major project was the back yard/driveway. our neighbors (downhill) agreed to give us a lot of fill dirt if we would put up a retaining wall (they hoped it would help with their water problems). so, ed was able to level out the small yard in the back and with the retaining wall, extend the driveway a little more to allow 2 cars in the parking area. on the other side of our driveway, we had a small hill that was not only ugly to look at, but seemed to be eroding right before our eyes, so ed also built a wall on that side of the yard (and flattened out our neighbor's yard for her too). this was all tackled just after ed completed the work on the deck (replacing the falling down "lean-to" that was formerly part of our kitchen)... needless to say, the man is incredible and also very sore at the end of every day!

so, here are pics of the backyard project (including the deck):

15 weeks... and counting

well, i'm in my 15th week and still sick every day. staying on meds that help with the nausea and just trying to cope. feeling really tired too. and i had an interesting experience with my clothes... tried to wear my stretchy, elastic-waisted skirt to work and found that the waist was just too tight to be comfortable (especially for all day at work). so, i'm wearing a maternity skirt for the first time. oh, it is so much more comfortable!! anyway, that's pretty much the update on the baby. we did go and hear the heartbeat a few weeks ago and it was amazing. (this finally seemed REAL to me when we heard it) we'll have the sonogram in a few weeks more (around 20 weeks), but we won't be finding out the sex of the baby. sorry to those of you who don't want to wait to find out! (oh, and since i only look fat and not pregnant, there are no pictures yet)

the house changes daily - and i do mean DAILY - and that's exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. as soon as we get a system down, things get switched around again, so it sometimes makes daily living a little difficult. but we seem to be managing okay and the results (like our new placement for the laundry and our forming baby room(!!!) are really exciting!!! i can't keep up with ed and all of the work he's getting done. he's like a machine! but i should be taking more pictures... hopefully i'll get more before we head to MN so that the abbotts can see what's going on. (i do hate to take pictures when it's a mess, though... and it's usually a mess these days)

summer is going well, for the most part. noah joined the swim team (finally, a swimmer in our house!) but isn't as into it as i think i'd like. one more area where i need to learn not to push... the weather around here has been really disappointing, so we haven't had a lot of good pool days. but we've been busy. we went to a few great concerts at the arts festival and have had fun with friends and picnics, etc. to celebrate father's day/dad's b'day (the boys will be away for ed's birthday), the guys bought new drum sticks, brushes and a stick bag for ed. ed has finally returned (sorta) to the music team and is very happy to be back to playing drums. and we moved the drum set back upstairs and it now sits in the front hall (it was in storage in the basement). that makes the 5 drummers in our house happy again.

i think that's about it. we're anxiously awaiting our trip west to see all of the abbotts and i'm trying to figure out a few other trips we might fit in before our busy fall hits.

dec 24 - we're expecting a pretty great gift!!

oh my word, so much has gone on since march 31st... i don't know how to catch up! well, april 18th is the day ed & i discovered we are expecting. we were on a fabulous weekend away and took a test in the hotel and were... (not sure what word describes us... in awe?)... well, thrilled to see the little pink + on the pregnancy test. then, after a weekend of talking freely about it, we came home and kept it hush for several weeks more. i did call the doctor and set up an appt, but otherwise, everything was quiet. until april 26th when i got a migraine, couldn't take anything for it and ended up throwing up all night. but then, the throwing up continued EVERY DAY. NOT a typical migraine experience for me. that was the start of "morning sickness" (or in my case, "24/7 sickness"). three trips to the ER (one on April 30th in order to be well-enough to attend sandy & travis' wedding, then again in may and our last visit was june 6) to get an IV & anti-nausea meds in order to rehydrate and all the while, keeping this under wraps for weeks!

i did break down and tell aunt betsy, susie & my mom at mother's day. i really needed to be able to talk about it - especially when i was feeling so sick! thankfully, my history of migraines & puking gave no one (boys, co-workers, friends, etc) reason to think this was anything different. there were occasional questions of "pregnant?" but those have been asked since i was in high school, so it was easy to play off. finally, when i was close enough to my second trimester (and still sick enough to be encouraged that we have a healthy & growing baby), we told the boys. it was june 4th when ed called a family meeting and informed the boys (while watching the pens play) that our family would be getting bigger. it took a split-second for taylor to turn and say "is buffy pregnant?" and i just looked at him. drew jumped up and came over to hug me and say how excited he was and ev came and hugged me/stood close to me (with repeating hugs over and over again). it was really fun. the next day, ev came and put his hand on my tummy and asked if he could feel any kicking. i told him "not yet, it's a little early". a half-hour later, he came back again to feel. i had to explain that we'd be waiting a few weeks and i'll let him know when he can check it out.

in the meantime, when we were still only 8 weeks (and still not telling anyone), ed was among the many cuts at his office (over 50%!!) and lost his job. yikes. we quickly transferred medical insurance back to my plan and he started the process of looking for work. he also has gotten A LOT of work done on the house. (he says it's amazing to see what can get done when you aren't working... good to find some silver lining!) our trim is going up and our rooms finally look/feel a little more finished. and we've cleaned out the basement and gotten a lot organized. next up is the baby room that's going to come from our current laundry room/office on the second floor. yeah!!! (i'm really excited about this!!)

hmmm, i guess that's most of the "update". i'm still pretty sick every day. tomorrow should be 13 weeks and i'm hoping to be done with this stage soon. (& ed's looking forward to the "nesting" stage where i get things cleaned up!!) today, eddie & i went to the doctor's and heard the heartbeat. it was amazing (and a little creepy as it feels like we're listening to space/listening for aliens). we heard our little baby's heartbeat - strong and fast and moving all over the place! the doctor had a hard time keeping track so that we could hear him/her! FINALLY, it feels REAL. we'll go for a sonogram and see our baby in a few weeks. we are not going to find out if we get a boy or girl. we'll wait on that until december.

one extra fun thing is that 4 of my girlfriends that i grew up with are also expecting (3 of them for the first time, like me) and that's really fun!! so, we'll have arrivals in aug, oct, nov & 2 in dec! 2009 is a good year for babies among my friends!! how fun!

okay, and now that we're getting finishing touches done, i think ed will let me take more pictures of the house. we need to post them for family to see what's going on. that should be soon. :)

2 of 2 - pictures, as promised

well, instead of heading out to enjoy the beautiful evening, i dragged ed to a movie tonight because i was so anxious to see 12 rounds... i was so wrong about that movie. it was awful. if only we were 15 years old, we might have enjoyed it. or, if that were the case, we might have enjoyed the movie more if we'd just made out in the theatre instead. hindsight...

oh well. at least we saw a preview for wolverine. that movie can't disappoint. i've been so excited about it for ages. bugger about tonight, though.

anyway, as promised, i'm posting a few pics. but ed wants me to wait until we get the walls finished to show off the work he's done.

so, here's the chandelier in the stairwell with the new window too, the fort in the unfinished gameroom (the boys made it and lived in it for a week or so. they loved it), and quick views of the dining room and front hall (including the glass tables that belonged to my granddad). oh, and one of the closet ed built for me in our bedroom. it was a surprise when i was out of town. he's amazing. (the closet is one place where the finish work will be done this weekend!)

1 of 2 today... that's my goal

i know, it's terrible of me to only update after having someone ask about the blog. the truth is, i'm lazy and a lot of the things i am focusing on these days are not things i want posted for the world to have access to via the internet.

however, there are a few things i can share about. first of all, the wonderful camera i got for my birthday a year ago or so isn't as wonderful as we thought. the battery dies quite quickly and at the least convenient times!! so, that's my excuse for the lack of pictures. that and the fact that i'm always waiting for our house to be clean so that i can take pictures of the projects we've completed... ha! like that's going to happen. i've sworn up and down, though, that i will take pictures of my house and send them to my father-in-law, so i really WILL get those done soon. in fact, i'll get a few off the camera today and post them. seriously.

after that, we'll have to wait only a short time for another set of completed projects!! we're having some guys come this friday (!) to start the mud-work on the walls. they do a really nice job of hiding any seams and then we'll have FINISHED WALLS in the gameroom, the master bathroom and along the NEW CLOSET that ed built for me in our bedroom!! it's just too exciting. we looked at paint colors last night for our room and then we'll try to mediate as the boys choose their game room color. taylor wants white and noah wants bright orange. as usual, those two are not even close to the same page. i'm guessing the paint jobs will be totally done by the end of april (probably sooner, as ed will be too excited to wait), so that's pretty exciting. we're still behind on the 3rd floor (boys' bedrooms)... still need to build the wall and doorway into drew's room and fix the walls where the boys have punched through. and new windows... but i suspect the windows might be a while. unless money starts falling from heaven, which hasn't happened so far in my life, so i'm not counting on it. :)

so, that's the house update. other than that, we're surviving. it's pre-Easter, so my job is causing me all sorts of stress and anxiety. i'm soothing that anxiety right now with a raspberry hot cocoa and a lemon/choc chip muffin top... i don't remember being a food-for-comfort person but this is the dangerous place i'm getting to... thankfully, the weather is getting better and eddie is too injured (shoulder and knee) to exercise vigorously, so i can count on a good walk with him most days. we still love to walk through the cemetery. it's the prettiest walk in town and we love it.

okay, i'm going to dive into my muffin top (and not go near the pastry shop again until ev's and my breakfast date on friday!!). pictures later today! :)

getting out of hand

for pete's sake. this morning, i left for work early so that i could make a quick stop at the store and get groceries for the next two days (no time for my usual "big shop"... maybe this weekend). then, i raced to work and went through a busy morning. i had exactly one hour before a meeting, so i hurried home for lunch... where i proceeded to unwrap my wrap skirt and start cleaning the bathroom (in my slip, tights, slippers & blouse!!!). yes, this is how i spend my "free time" from work... running to and from stores, cleaning when i have a minute, etc. and yet, our fridge is always empty and our house is always a mess. it doesn't make sense!!!
i wonder how ed spends his lunch hour... ?

my word, i just get off-track and never seem to update this anymore! things are going well, i think. we're making good progress on the house (the theme of our Christmas party invite was "we have walls and want to celebrate, fa la la la la la la la la!"). our master bathroom is coming along nicely - we may even get our closets set back up soon... maybe. (right now, poor ed has to deal with his dress clothes crammed in with mine or hanging in random areas of the house.) the game room needs to be our next focus, as we are currently living with all of the furniture and everything else in that room (i.e. everything for the boys, essentially... toys, tv, games, etc) is stacked floor to ceiling in the middle of the room. these days, it's become the pit where things go and disappear. i can't imagine what we'll uncover when we get that room back in order. and i just can't wait until we get it done... it will mean that the boys have their space back and we can live a little more "normally". AND they can get back to having friends over again! it's bad enough that ed & i have dropped off the face of the earth socially and didn't have friends over while we've been working so hard on the house, but we both feel it's worse for the boys. so, that's the focus now. well, that and the heating issues we have in our 110 year old house that started with no insulation and we still have a basement that may as well be wide open!!
geez, and i wonder why i'm battling constant headaches!
that's about it really. i'll write about our latest trip to mn soon. and pictures... i'm always promising pictures and never coming through on that. bugger.